


starfish and coffee (you will love it, told ya so)

by cinderlily



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Teacher AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 14:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7643995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie teaches middle school and all he is hearing about the new substitute. </p>
<p>AKA, the teacher AU no one needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	starfish and coffee (you will love it, told ya so)

The first day back from Spring Break was generally pretty much useless. It was the day that Jamie had always scheduled to focus on something easy and quick, maybe show a movie. The kids were rarely awake yet and even worse they were all out cranky. 

Except his second period class that comes in basically bouncing up and down like they’d just drank a RedBull, giddily talking back and forth and someone named “Ty” and it was … well. In general a little weird. 

“Okay, calm down,” Jamie said, putting both hands up. They didn’t listen at all. He took the nearest piece of paper to him, rolled it in his hands and hollered. “Heads up!” 

Lobbing it into the air the whole class went silent just in time for Paul to completely missing the ball and have it fall on the floor in front of him. 

“No fair, Mr. Benn!” Paul whined. “I wasn’t ready.” 

Jamie shrugged his shoulders because he figured it was better than rolling his eyes at a 13 year old. “The game is you have to be paying attention to get the extra credit.” 

Paul shrunk down in his seat and folded his arms. Spring Break had been so freaking awesome. He’d never truly appreciated it as a student. He closed his eyes and exhaled. 

“Okay, today’s lesson is on the last chapter we read in Holes,” he said. The kids groaned. “What? You liked that book a week and a half ago?” 

“Ty made paper BLOW UP, Mr. Benn,” Claire, his usual best student, said from the front of the class. 

And what the ever loving _fuck_? He went through his mental list of kids in their grade. There was a few Taylors but no Tysons or Tylers that he could think of. 

“Ty…?” 

Claire _blushed_. “Oh um. Mrs. Chu had her baby… remember? He’s the sub.” 

“He’s _awesome_.” Paul said. “He blew up paper and he said he might bring in liquid nitrogen to show us how to smash a banana.” 

Jamie kept his face neutral, it was one of the few lessons his four years of teaching and given him. “Is that so?” 

“Yeah, and he’s so hot,” Lana called out from the back. 

One of her friends, he didn’t catch who added, “Yeah. I hope Mrs. Chu stays away for the rest of the school year so Major Hottie stays.” 

“Alright,” Jamie said, blinking at the fact that he was actually having this conversation. Granted Ms. Knight, who taught math two doors down from him, had informed him that he was called ‘Professor Dreamy’ in her class. But this was ridiculous. “That is all well and good, and I’m glad you like the substitute…”

He’d never thought he could hear 30 kids sigh in unison, but he was wrong. “Come on, I have a video. Can you listen to me for ten minutes before the video?” 

He got a few nods, more shrugs, and the rest blank stares. No outright ‘no’s though so that was a bonus. 

He could work with that. 

* 

By the end of the day he was completely done with this “Ty” and his entire apparent ability to be the coolest teacher _ever_ and how he was _hot_ and amazing and perfect and yeah. He was done. Really really done. He should be going by his last name. Also, it was not safe to blow up stuff in a building with 11-13 year olds. And he wasn’t totally sold on liquid nitrogen. 

(Granted, if he couldn’t get the money to pay for a new set of Romeo and Juliet he doubted liquid nitrogen was getting past Principal Between.) 

He through his stuff into his bag and walked down to the end of the hall, hoping that he would be able to get a chance to talk to “Ty”. He knocked on the door before entering, and found a small group of kids sitting there talking to… 

Well. Okay. The kids had the hot thing down. The guy was… gorgeous. Stubble on his face, huge goofy smile and oh my god, he was objectifying the hell out of the sub right at that moment. With kids present. Not his finest moment. 

Ty’s eyes turned towards him and his smile got a little wider. “Hey, sorry, do you need the room?” 

“Uh, no?” 

“Then can I help you?” 

Jamie’s brain went completely blank, but thankfully a student came to his rescue. 

“MR. BENN! Have you met Ty?” the boy, Lucas, asked. “He’s totally awesome.” 

Ty laughed. “Thanks man, but you know I have little control over your grades, right?” 

“What?” Lucas asked, oblivious. 

“I just came by to introduce myself,” Jamie said, finally catching up with himself. “You’re um. Kind of the talk of the school today.” 

Ty’s cheeks turned a pleasant shade of pink. “Aww, thanks. I’m Tyler…” 

“Jamie,” he said. 

“His name is Jamie?” he heard one of his students asked, and he was the one to blushed at that. 

“Hey kids,” Tyler said. “Don’t you guys have buses or parents to meet up with?” 

The kids, blessedly, took a hint and dispersed. He was pretty sure that Ty could have gotten them to do anything. Though a few of the girls lingered at the doorway, before laughing and running out. 

Once they were all gone, Tyler came closer and shook Jamie’s hand. “Sorry if I made things crazy. I just remember how freaking boring school was, especially after vacation. Thought I’d wake them up by blowing shit up, you know?” 

“Yeah, I usually go the other way and show movies. But you know, less blowing stuff up in Humanities,” Jamie said, feeling inexplicably embarrassed by his choice of focus. 

“OH, you’re Mr. BENN,” he smiled. “The kids were talking about you in second period. I freaking loved Holes when I was their age. It was the weirdest book I’d read. And it wasn’t annoyingly stuffy or wordy. It was funny and kind of painful and I totally loved it.” 

He smiled. It was one of his favorite books, so it felt almost like he was getting complimented himself rather than just the book. 

“Did you ever see the movie? It’s actually _good_ , when does that ever happen?” Tyler boggled. “And freaking Transformers kid is in it.” 

Jamie nodded. “I’m allowed to show small bits to the class. Not the whole thing though.” 

“Lame,” Tyler turned around and started cleaning up. Jamie was feeling a little silly, as he had come with the intention of yelling at the guy. He went to turn around and show himself out but Tyler seemed to notice that quickly. “Hey, don’t go. First day back, I’m apparently here till the end of the year…” 

He waited for him to go on but Tyler looked a little tongue tied for a second, he blushed again and it was kind of the best type of blush. Made his cheeks bright red and him look down. 

“Just. It might be nice to have a friend or something to commiserate with?” 

“Yeah, totally.” Because what the hell else was he supposed to say? 

Tyler’s smile was back. “Want to get a drink?” 

He almost, but not quite, said, ‘On a SCHOOL night?’ but kept it back in time. He just nodded. 

“ _Awesome_ ,” Tyler said. “Give me two minutes, just gotta get my shit together. My treat, _Professor Dreamy_.” 

Jamie choked on air, but caught himself in time to say. “I’m going to kill Hilary…”

Tyler snorted with laughter. 

“Keep laughing, _Major Hottie_.” 

“I’m in the military?” 

He shrugged. “I think it’s probably the tattoos.” 

“Tattoos are military? I thought they were hipster.” 

Jamie quirked an eyebrow at him. “You WANT to be a hipster?” 

Tyler shrugged and gave an exaggerated hand motion like a mixture of the Fonz and … well Jamie didn’t even know what. “I don’t confine to your ‘labels’, man.” 

Jamie honked with laughter, covering his eyes and pushed at him. “If only the girls could see you now. So disappointed.” 

“Well good thing I don’t go for _preteen girls_ ,” Tyler said and then seemingly braced himself. “Or, you know. Girls in general.” 

Jamie paused, not knowing exactly what to say. Or, he knew _what to say_ but how to say it was pretty up in the air. “Well. That makes two of us? Though, occasionally grown up women. But mostly… well. Not?”

Tyler’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, we’re getting along awesome, Professor Dreamy.” 

* 

Tyler knew of a place that they _had_ to go to. It wasn’t that far from their school so he offered to drive. Jamie nodded and let him drive, because why the hell not? He knew the guy a whole forty five minutes. Tyler drove a beat up F150, which made Jamie laugh when he indicated his car in the parking lot, matching in every way except for color. (Tyler’s was blue, Jamie’s bright green.) 

The restaurant was called ‘Los Olivos’ and was small but comfortable on the inside. It smelled _amazing_. It was way too early to drink, or to want food, but Tyler shrugged. 

Their waitress took one look at Tyler and acted like maybe _he_ was the one to smell amazing. He put on a huge smile and talked to her like she was the only one in the room and okay. Jamie was aware they weren’t on a date and even more that Tyler had specifically told him he was gay before but man. He wanted Tyler to turn off that charming switch for a while. Or switch it to _him_

Tyler turned to him and asked what he wanted. They had said drinks after all, so he said something along the lines of “Uh, Corona?”

“Ugh, no,” Tyler frowned at him. “Dos Equis. And do you have those taco plates from last week or am I here on the wrong day?” 

The girl smiled wide at him. “Of course we have it… Today is chicken though. If you want the beef ones they are extra.” 

“Tonight we dine like Kings, beef!” Tyler said, unbuttoning his button down to show that he was wearing a shirt for some band underneath. The waitress lingered for a second and then walked off. “Sorry, had to get off the work wear. I always feel like my dad or something.” 

Jamie had, once again, lost track of where he was. He was looking at Tyler’s arms for a moment and then up at his face to see a curious but amused smile. 

“So what got you into teaching?” Jamie said, trying to distract himself from the fact that he’d been staring at the sheer amount of tattoos that were on Tyler’s arms. They were … nice. He’d always _wanted_ tattoos, but had never quite braved it. 

Tyler made a face. “Well, it wasn’t my first choice…”

Jamie’s hackles began to rise but Tyler put both hands up. 

“Not my last choice!” Tyler said, clearly. Which was good. Jamie hated the jackasses who ‘fell into teaching’, or some shit. First of all, they were generally the worst type of teachers with the worst attitude and secondly they rarely stuck around. “I was just… I was in hockey.” 

That perked Jamie’s ears. 

“I really loved it. It was my LIFE. Then one swift boarding at Under 17s and…” Tyler made the hand signal for a huge explosion. “ACL went kablooey and recovery time was not ‘conducive’ and there was too much risk… I was freaking devastated. Thought life was over. What was I without hockey? 

“Except Mrs. Grant, she was my science teacher at the time, she refused to accept my half ass work and 17 year old angst. She was going to fail me if I didn’t do extra credit.” 

Tyler laughed, focusing on his hands as they fidgeted. “I mean, I was going to build a freaking volcano or some bull and try and eek out. But we were doing some projects on different states and how they change. So the crazy woman let me insta freeze shit in front of her class, as long as I did the research behind it.” 

“She gave a seventeen year old boy access to liquid nitrogen?” Jamie’s eyes went wide. 

“I know, and I still have all my fingers,” Tyler chuckled, lifting both hands and wiggling his fingers. “I mean, she and the other science teacher were there over my shoulder the whole time but… I don’t know. I thought it was cool. And then when I was researching I did more and more research. Like _unneeded reading_. Big stuff. And I was still mostly bed ridden after physical therapy so I had a lot of time.

“By the end of the semester I was working harder than I ever had. Not even just the science kept me entertained but just. I don’t know. She didn’t want me to fail, right? She didn’t see me as a broken hockey player. She saw a kid who was worth something else. So you know. Sob sob, bull shit, that’s my story and I totally brought us down.” 

Jamie exhaled. Tyler coughed and let out a laugh and Jamie decided that in for a penny…. 

“I had the exact opposite of that,” he said, then back tracked. “Well, not the exact opposite cause I guess that would require me getting super powers…” 

Tyler _actually_ laughed. “You saying you can’t leap anything in a single bound? What a let down, you even look like Superman.” 

Jamie blushed and coughed. “No, I was .. I mean. I _never_ had a teacher like that. Not at all. And I used to visit my grandparents a lot in the summer. Where my siblings had run of the TV, cause I was the youngest… So I used to steal the books off the shelf and read.

“I never got how in school the books were all boring and dry but the books I read outside of school were like… amazing. My grandpa was a big reader. So I got to read things I probably shouldn’t but man. _Catch 22_. _Brave New World_. I was always pissed when we’d read them in school. The teachers ruined them. So I decided I wouldn’t let that happen to others.” 

He felt a little weird at the thought that the only other time he’d ever really told that to some one was the College of Education essay but Tyler had been so honest. He looked up at Tyler, who was kind of gaping at him. 

“You actually _are_ Superman, aren’t you?” He kicked out under the table and Tyler let out a loud ‘ouch’. “My ACL!” 

Jamie instantly felt horrible, almost falling over himself to lean down and see if he’d done permanent damage before he saw Tyler cover up his mouth with his hand. Jamie frowned. 

“Jerk.” 

“Good thing you didn’t go into medicine, you actually think a kick to my knee would do that much damage like 8 years later? I’m fine, man.” 

The waitress came, a couple of beers and two full plates of tacos. He smiled at her and gave a small kick again under the table for good measure. Tyler yelped but laughed when he got a weird look from the waitress. 

“He’s so handy,” Tyler said, shamelessly. “But I like his hands.” 

Jamie didn’t point out that his hands were on _on the freaking table_ , because … well. It was flirty but not towards her. He was flirting with _him_. And that was okay. That was totally okay. 

The waitress rolled her eyes but smiled. “I would figure. Can I get you boys anything else?” 

“I’m good,” Tyler said, winking at her. 

“Me too?” Jamie’s voice was a little higher than meant it to be. 

She left the table and Jamie changed the subject, fast. “So, are you still into hockey?” 

“Yeah,” Tyler said, and let out a lot of air. “Though I’m a Leafs fan, so that is kind of … debatable.” 

Jamie laughed. “The Maple Leafs, you poor poor soul. Not that I’m much better. Canucks…” 

“Oh shut up, you have the freaking Sedin twins, those guys are awesome. Were you the worst last season? THE ABSOLUTE WORST? I know you weren’t, cause we were. We have tanking down to a science.” 

Jamie picked up his beer and tilted it towards Tyler. “But… Auston Matthews.” 

Tyler grinned and clinked their beers together. “Auston Matthews.” 

* 

They kept had a good dinner after that, no more sad stories or weird pauses. Instead they talked about sports and home and life. They talked about hopes and dreams. He admitted his brother was, seemingly, in the AHL forever. But that was okay. Because Jordie was happy and he liked Jordie being happy. 

By the time they were done, somehow, it was sometime past 8 and Jamie was pretty sure that he hadn’t been out on a school night in long enough that he was kind of embarrassed at how reckless it make him feel. 

The waitress brought them their bill and Jamie reached for his pocket but Tyler gave him a quick glare. “I told you my treat.” 

Jamie reached. “You told me the drinks were your treat.” 

“You just owe me a meal,” Tyler said, and somehow his voice was suddenly not nearly as confident as he’d been before. He had the bill out of Jamie’s reach but he wasn’t quite looking at Jamie. 

Jamie put his hands down and Tyler looked at him, all false bravado. “Well then. Um. It’s a date then, I guess.” 

The beaming grin he got was totally worth the attack on his Canadian politeness. He could feel his mom glaring at him, saying he needed to pay. But then there was Tyler being Tyler. He could handle that. 

“A date, huh?” 

Jamie nodded, watching as the waitress took the bill away. 

Tyler leaned over the table and winked. “I don’t put out till the third.” 

Jamie’s tongue felt too big in his mouth. “Good thing it’ll be out second.” 

“Maybe tomorrow night?” 

“Hell fucking yeah,” Jamie said, probably too loud as the table next to them had a kid who looked about 12. This made Tyler laugh loud. And hell, that laugh made it worth the dirty withering looks of the parents. 

He totally agreed with whichever of Lana’s “BFFs” had said it. He loved Julie with all his heart, but he hoped Ms. Chu was out for the rest of the year if it gave him till the summer with Tyler.

**Author's Note:**

> Taking a break from the TWO "fake marrieds" I'm working on at the second and here. <3


End file.
